Opinions & Interviews

GOMEL, 10 August (BelTA) – Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has blamed Russia for unfair competition and failure to fulfill its commitments within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union. The Belarusian leader made this statement as he visited Gomselmash on 10 August, BelTA has learned.

“I want to preserve Gomselmash. We are going through a difficult period now – Russians are acting in a barbarian way towards us. I say that publicly. They make demands like we are their vassals; however they do not want to honor their own commitments within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union where they invited us. Thus, they create a non-competitive situation,” the Belarusian leader said. Alexander Lukashenko noted that Russia blames Americans and the West for creating “a non-competitive advantage”. “However, they are treating us the same way as they are creating non-competitive terms for us. This is a matter of our discussion with the Russian president. Anyway, we should work in the given conditions,” the head of state said.

Alexander Lukashenko raised this topic again as he talked to the company’s employees. “We need to hold out for two or three years. We will feel tremendous pressure on the part of competitors from the West like Claas Lexion and other machines and unfortunately from the East by our big brother who is competing unfairly. They support their Rostselmash in every way possible; they subsidize it violating our arrangements in the Eurasian Economic Union. It is wrong, unfair and we do not remove this issue from the agenda of Belarus-Russia negotiations at the level of the governments and even at the level of the presidents,” Alexander Lukashenko emphasized.

The president noted that efforts will be made to ensure equal competition terms. “We will support our company as much as we can. However, you need to work faster. We need to hold out for two or three years amidst this unfair competition and outperform our rivals (my friend Russian president calls them partners, but I call them our rivals, at the least,” the Belarusian leader noted.

He expressed confidence that the company will not only withstand the difficulties, but will also be able to outstrip its competitors. In this regard, he urged to sharpen focus on improving quality and reliability of products, developing new machines that will be in demand not only in Belarus, but also abroad, exploring new sales markets and sources of maintaining sustainable operation.